Vincent Smothers' life was that of a made-for-TV hitman. He lived in a townhouse in suburban Detroit with his wife and baby daughter. He was the polite neighbor often seen walking his poodle. What people didn't know is that he was also a prolific killer...

Detroit police Sergeant David Cobb was accused of hiring Smothers to kill his wife. But he hanged himself in a park before the investigation concluded.

His specialty was being hired as a tool of revenge in Detroit's drug trade. His first hit came in August of 2006. Smothers was hired to take out brothers Adrian and Carl Thornton, who were thought to have ripped off a fellow dealer.

Smothers ambushed them at their home, shooting Adrian in the head, chest and leg. Carl was shot in the head as well, but survived.

Yet Smothers was a craftsman. He wasn't about to let a target get away. He returned to the home the following January, waiting to ambush Carl Thornton again, hiding in an abandoned house. This time he took care of his mark, also shooting a 22-year-old woman who accompanied Thornton in the butt.

Only a few months later he would take out Marshall White Jr., 56, and Johnny Marshall, 64, who were thought to be informants. They were found shot to death on a freeway service road, White in the head and Marshall in the face.

By June of 2007, he was at it again. Smothers and an accomplice, Lakari Berry, stormed into a Detroit home and demanded to know where the money was. But there was only two women and two children in the house.

They ransacked the house and then tied the women up in a back room. Then they told Gaudrielle Webster to call her boyfriend, Clarence Cherry, and lure him to the home.

When Cherry arrived, the two men shot him 20 times, before turning their guns on Webster and her friend, 18-year-old Karsia Rice. Cherry and Webster both died at the scene. Rice would survive a gunshot wound to the head that left her blind in one eye.

Berry was later convicted of the killing after a witness got his license plate number. But he never ratted out Smothers, who would go on to kill again.

The murder that did him in involved Detroit Police Sergeant David Cobb, or so Smothers claimed in his confession.

Cobb was having an affair; he also wanted a payoff from his wife's insurance policy. So the hit was set up through Marzell Black, the 20-year-old son of Cobb's mistress. Cobb would pay Black and Smothers $10,000 -- to be split equally -- to take out his wife Rose Cobb.

She was ambushed as she got into her minivan outside a pharmacy while her husband remained inside the store. Smothers approached her and tried to make it look like a robbery by grabbing her purse. But Rose jumped into the backseat, and Smothers opened fire, shooting her multiple times in the head.

According to Smothers, Cobb tried to stiff him on the $10,000 payment. He initially forked over just $50, saying he would pay the rest later to avoid suspicion. In the meantime, Smothers had grown tired of killing.

He was eventually ratted out by an informant, and it wasn't long before he confessed to being a serial killer. He told police the killing hadn't bothered him when the targets were drug dealers. But something got to him with the murder of a police sergeant's wife.

Upon Smothers' confession, Cobb was suspended by the Detroit PD during an investigation. But instead of facing the possibility of prison, Cobb took a quicker route to mercy. He decided to hang himself in a park in 2008.

Why haven't other accomplices named by self-proclaimed hitman Vincent Smothers, most notably Ernest (Nemo) Davis, been charged with being accomplices in forthcoming trials?
For background, I began with the execution style killing of Rose Cobb . As you might recall, Cobb was shot in the head December 26, 2007 while husband DPD Sgt David Cobb was inside the store shopping.
Next spring Vincent Smothers confessed to the Cobb murder to officer Ira Todd, filling in information about the murder conspiracy. Sgt. Cobb contacted Sheila Black, who was having an affair with Cobb, to see who was willing to do his wife. She referred Cobb to her son Darzell, 20, to see who was available and he came up with 'V,' one of two street names for Smothers. Cobb then met with Darzell Black and Smothers to formulate a plan. Smothers was to receive $10,000 from Rose Cobb's life insurance policy for carrying out the hit.
Even Sgt Cobb was arrested briefly, until the prosecutor refused sign the warrant, claiming the only witnesses would probably take the fifth. But Cobb's troubles were just beginning. The DPD Chief Ella Bully-Cummings would successfully argue with the police commissioners that Cobb be suspended without pay during the investigation.
Cobb could not take the pressure and hanged himself in September, 2008.
Fast forward to the present. Smothers has been in jail for two years awaiting a trial date that never seems to be set, much the consternation and chagrin of Rose Cobb's relatives.
Think also on this: though future prosecutions await Smothers, other accomplices he claims to have used in the drug murders are, to my knowledge, walking around free, This includes Ernest Davis He is the brother of James Davis, a Detroiter who moved to Lexington, Ky. When James Davis wasn't dealing cocaine or screwing mortgage companies, he was boasting about having personal and professional relationships with then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
When Todd's investigation took him too close to the Davis clan, it was summarily quashed by the DPD brass, and Todd was demoted.
But the city has a new mayor and a new chief of police. Last fall Chief Warren Evans claimed the would put two matters at the top of his priorities list: Tamara Greene and Vincent Smothers. Yet to my knowledge Smother's named accomplice in some of the drug hits hasn't been formally indicted. Sure, as in the Cobb case, Kym Worthy will resist issuing an indictment if Smother's confession alone implicates Ernest Davis.
However some independent evidence exists. It is known the Smothers and Davis went to Lexington to hide out after a hit. Smothers and Davis were witnessed leaving the scene of a murder in a late model Cadillac with Kentucky plates. An informant claimed the vehicle may have been owned by James Davis.
The Cadillac was later found burned with the homicide victim still in it.
Though James Davis is looking at 30 years for wire fraud, I have found no reference to any investigation into his brother Ernest's collaboration with Smothers in the drug hits. If the DPD isn't looking into this, it should be.

Taminko Sanford (center), mother of Davontae, with his family outside court July 29, 2010/Photo Diane Bukowski

Serving 37-90 years since age 14 for four drug-related murders, despite confession by another man, police testimony that he is innocent
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT – Davontae Sanford is now 18. He has spent the last four years of his short life in adult prisons, convicted of murdering four people on Runyon Street on Detroit’s east side on Sept. 15, 2007, when he was 14. He is 5’6,’’ slightly-built, blind in one eye, and “developmentally disabled.”

Vincent Smothers

Shortly after Davontae was sentenced to 37 to 90 years in prison in 2008, Vincent Smothers, now 28, of Shelby Township, confessed to the Detroit police on videotape that he and a different man committed the murders as part of a series of drug-related hits. Highly placed members of the police department have testified they believe Davontae is innocent, including a former chief of homicide who says Davontae was with him at the time of the murders.
“Davontae’s a warm, loving person who the kids always said was my favorite,” said his mother Taminko Sanford. “He was born on Thanksgiving Day, and I always felt he was my gift from God.”
Davontae is her first son, the second oldest of five children, and she along with his stepfather and siblings have waged a relentless campaign since his arrest to free him, garnering broad-ranging support.

Davontae at 14

“Davontae was about to start the ninth grade at Osborn High School the day after his arrest,” Ms. Sanford said. “He loves rap and computers. He is so close to his brother and his three sisters. His brother has all Davontae’s letters from prison pasted up all over his bedroom walls, and his little sister has all his childhood photos on hers.”
Davontae has 1249 Facebook supporters from all over the world, including the United Kingdom and Sweden. He has support from media personalities like Bill Proctor of Detroit’s Channel 7, who runs his own Innocence Project. His case has received extensive and generally sympathetic coverage from the Associated Press and Detroit’s daily media.

The Rest of Their Lives (sentencing children to life without parole in the U.S.) Human Rights Watch

Elish Delaporter of the UK is following his case on her MySpace website, part of her campaign against this country’s exclusive practice of sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole. That policy is expressly condemned by the UN Commission on the Rights of the Child.
But in a seemingly never-ending series of evidentiary hearings since July, 2009, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is vigorously fighting Davontae’s motion for a new trial, citing what his defense attorney Kim McGinnis calls a “classic false confession.”
During the most recent hearing Jan. 14, in front of Davontae’s trial judge Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan, Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Puleo once again ignored another of McGinnis’ requests that the prosecution grant “use” immunity to Smothers. That would allow him to testify in court about his role in the murders without fear of having the prosecution use his testimony to charge him in the cases.

Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Puleo said he is worried about Smothers’ constitutional rights, because he could face life without parole if he admits to the killings.
Smothers is already serving 50-100 years in maximum security on nine counts of second-degree murder and three counts of assault with intent to commit murder, along with various felony charges, stemming from other cases in which he testified he was a hit man for a drug ring.
McGinnis called the plea deal for such a number of hit killings “virtually unheard of,” and Proctor called it “the deal of the century” in news coverage of the sentencing on July 23 of this year.

Judge Craig Strong at Smothers sentencing

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Craig Strong, who sentenced Smothers, even pleaded with him, “You cannot bring back those who were killed but you can correct wrongs for those who were wrongfully convicted of killing people that you killed.”
Proctor reported that Strong “seemed highly concerned about a pre-sentence report that indicated Smothers had confessed to murders that were not a part of the plea deal. It spelled out in part how Smothers had confessed to the murder of four people on Runyon Street on Detroit’s east side and how 16-year-old Davontae Sanford was in prison for those killings.”
The Associated Press quoted Smothers’ attorney at the time, Gabi Silver, saying, “The police have his statements. It’s not him who doesn’t want to correct things.”
A You Tube videotape of portions of the sentencing, along with others related to the Smothers cases, can be viewed at http://wn.com/%22vincent_smothers%22.
Smothers is now contending that his confessions in the cases for which he was convicted were coerced, and has appealed. Among his contentions is that the police threatened to charge his wife if he did not confess. He is represented by Attorney Mitchell Foster, also of the State Appellate Defenders’ Office.
The prosecutor’s office does not appear so concerned about Davontae’s constitutional rights.

Davontae in court at age 17

McGinnis said that during the child’s questioning by police, neither his mother nor an attorney was present. Davontae signed and initialed a typewritten document drawn up by a detective, despite being blind in one eye, and according to McGinnis, reading at a third-grade level. There is no videotaped record of the confession except one in which the detective reads the confession back to him.“It was a classic false confession,” McGinnis said. “Davontae saw the police lights after the killings were discovered around the corner from his house, and walked up to the police to find out what was going on. They told him, ‘You know what’s going on,’ and took him downtown. Twenty hours later, he signed a confession which contained only the details that the police already knew at the time.”

Robinson house on Runyon Street where killings occurred

The victims in the killing were “Michael Robinson, 33; D’Angelo McNoriell and Brian Dixon, who were in their early 20s, and Nicole Chapman, 25. Valerie Glover, 30, was critically wounded but survived the attack.A 7-year-old boy was found unharmed.” according to published reports. In his confession Davontae claimed he committed the killings with a different weapon, an M-14, than the ones used in the killings, an AK 47 and a .45 caliber pistol, according to McGinnis.
“Those are the weapons that Vincent Smothers uses, and the whole crime is his exact MO,” McGinnis said in published remarks.
Ballistics evidence, delayed due to the shutdown of the Detroit police crime lab two years ago, is still to be introduced in upcoming evidentiary hearings.
Three accomplices are also identified in Davontae’s confession, but they were never charged, leaving a question as to how one child could kill four people in an alleged drug house.
“Smothers gave a confession that was very detailed and clear and implicated another man, Edward Davis,” McGinnis said. “The things he says he did are what the police say Davontae did. The woman in the back room who survived said the killer talked to her in a soft voice that was sounded 30-35 years old, but later changed her testimony to say it was an adolescent voice. In his confession, Smothers admitted to going back to speak to her.”
She added, “The prosecutor has spent a lot of energy trying to tie Smothers to Davontae, but has never been able produce any such evidence. It is absurd to think that professional contract killers were going to allow a 14-year-old boy to tag along with them.”
Detroit’s retired chief of homicide, Commander William Rice, who spent 25 years on the force, was dating Davontae’s great-aunt Cheryl Sanford at the time of the Runyon Street killings. Rice testified Oct. 28, 2009 that he was with Davontae at her house at the time of the murders, from 8 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., and that he left to take another man home to Mt. Clemens and then take Davontae home.

How much training does a cell tower forensics expert need?

But during the November hearing, Assistant Appeals Prosecutor Patrick Muscat challenged Rice’s testimony.
A Detroit police investigator, Arthur Wimmer, testified. He said he is assigned to the Violent Crimes Task Force composed of the DPD, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the MDOC, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and other agencies at all levels.
Wimmer said he had 120 hours (three weeks) of specialized training in cell tower forensics conducted by the FBI and private corporations, and was allowed to testify as an expert witness. Michigan currently has no licensing process for such experts.
Wimmer claimed Rice’s cell phone records showed he was in Mt. Clemens, a city about 30 miles east of Detroit, at 11:18 p.m. the night of the murders.
McGinnis challenged cell tower testimony as sometimes inaccurate. She said later that the testimony may have shown that Rice was off base in his exact estimates of time, but did not discount Davontae’s presence with his family for most of the time prior to the killings.
“He would not have had time to prepare, or to hook up with Smothers and get to the site to commit the murders,” McGinnis said.

A Department of Corrections official also testified about alleged “gang” materials and graffiti found in a search of Davontae’s cell in the Thumb Correctional Facility. The official claimed scars on Davontae’s arms were remnants of gang tattoos.“Anything that happened after the night of the murders is not relevant,” McGinnis objected. But Judge Sullivan allowed the testimony to go on record.
“The tattoos were about the movie ‘Bloodline’,” Ms. Sanford said. “Both Davontae and his brother had them. They just stand for their connection to each other, nothing else. They were separated from each other for part of their lives.”
In addition to Rice, Detroit Police Department investigators Gerald Williams and IraTodd, who helped take Smothers’ confession, have testified that Smothers admitted to the Runyon Street killings and stated that Davontae was not involved. Todd, who was also a member of the Violent Crimes Task Force, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Detroit’s former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

His lawsuit, filed by attorney Michael Stefani, says, “During the continuing investigation, it was determined that Smothers was a killer for hire for a notorious Detroit drug gang that regularly contracted for the murders of members of rival drug gangs as well as dissident members of their own organizations.”
In the lawsuit, Todd claims he was removed from the Task force, demoted and otherwise mistreated because his investigation into the Smothers’ killings led him to Smothers’ alleged accomplice, Ernest Davis, and to Davis’ cousin James Davis of Kentucky. Todd said James Davis claimed to have a “business relationship” with Kilpatrick, and that when he reported that, his investigation was shut down and he was transferred.
Neither AP’s Muscat nor Puleo would comment outside of court on the case.
Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller, who is chief communications officer for Worthy’s office, said, “Because the case remains in progress we will not comment on issues directly related to it outside of court. It was appropriate for the APA handling the case to also not comment outside of court. The case is in open court and our assistant prosecutor is responding in court.””
Just prior to Smothers’ sentencing, the jail was locked down after guards discovered that he had been able to obtain a cell phone while locked up.

Rose Cobb

Taminko Sanford says she believes that may indicate he had connections with law enforcement officials. One of the people Smothers confessed to killing was Rose Cobb, wife of Detroit police sergeant David Cobb. Smothers said Cobb hired her to kill his wife outside a CVS pharmacy on E. Jefferson near their home, as she waited in the car while her husband was in the store.
Although the police department arrested Cobb, Worthy never charged him in the murder. Cobb was later found hanging from a tree, an apparent suicide.
Miller did not respond to a question regarding whether Smothers may have been a hit man for corrupt police officers.
During the hearing Nov. 23, Davontae appeared polite and happy to see his mother and other family members, but there was an air of quiet desperation about him.
Sanford said Jan. 12 that she was very worried about Davontae because she had not heard from him for two weeks. He was recently transferred from Michigan’s Thumb Correctional Facility, which houses a large number of younger prisoners, to the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia, with Level Four prisoners over the age of 17. In Michigan’s prisons, Level Five is the maximum security grade.

“Davontae used to call me every day, sometimes more than once a day,” Sanford said. “I’ve been praying to God to let me hear from him so that I know he is OK. It’s a new atmosphere for him and I’m so worried because I’m afraid that he is losing hope. He can get very depressed.”
Davontae’s next court hearing is tentatively set for January 28, 2010 at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.Davontae’s Facebook Page is Free Davontae Sanford at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=108713425818908. http://t.co/4Ipwayq

A human and civil rights advocate. The United Kingdom resident champions causes of the voiceless, the powerless and the weak, particularly in North America. She campaigns for Political Prisoners, petitions on behalf of incarcerated & human trafficking.

Credits to Tamer Shaaban who made this video
Important message to youtube and people who flag this video :
If it gets flagged or removed , it will be uploaded 10 more times
________________________________________­_____________________

Violent clashes between police and demonstrators as over ten thousand gather on the streets of Cairo. The Egyptian population has endured a tyrants rule for far too long, millions struggle each day to find where their next meal is coming from. January 25th, 2011 marks the day when the people rise and take back what's rightfully there's. This isn't the end, but hopefully the beginning to a long awaited regime change! Send to everyone and let them know.
Song: "Into the Fire" - Thirteen Senses
Thanks to the following news sources for their footage
Daily News Egypt
The Guardian
CNN
New York Times
Al Masry Al Youm
The video was posted on reddit and has gained momentum! Continue spreading the word! The more support we get the better!http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/co...

This is the Official Online (Youtube) Release of "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" by Peter Joseph. [30 subtitles ADDED!]

On Jan. 15th, 2011, "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" was released theatrically to sold out crowds in 60 countries; 31 languages; 295 cities and 341 Venues. It has been noted as the largest non-profit independent film release in history.

This is a non-commercial work and is available online for free viewing and no restrictions apply to uploading/download/posting/linking - as long as no money is exchanged.

A Free DVD Torrent of the full 2 hr and 42 min film in 30 languages is also made available through the main website [below], with instructions on how one can download and burn the movie to DVD themselves. His other films are also freely available in this format.

..TPM: Breitbart, Adams Respond To Criticism Of Their Role In New Black Panther Case. January 29, 2011 12:24 pm ... the Commission's report -- though highly critical of the Obama ...mediamatters.org/blog/201101290002

The Electronic Communication Harassment Observation is conducting a survey to gauge the prevalence of cyberstalking.The UK based organisation has been commissioned by the Network for Surviving Stalking charity, which aims to support stalking

Stalking and bullying including Internet stalking ...
advice and guidance on stalking and antistalking techniques ... Stalking has become Britain's fastest growing crime with over 4000 prosecutions under the ...www.bullyonline.org/related/stalking.htm

The Juvenile Justice in the United States is certainly in dire need of America's undivided focus and attention, for far too many children are being led into the adult court system and discarded into the adult prison system unnecessarily. So I commend and applaud your efforts to bring a degree of responsibility to the juvenile justice Laws. Though I think it's important that America's focus and attention also include the teenagers that were waived and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment in the adult prison system 15/16/17/years ago. I think Justice for these Juvenile offenders would include Liz Ryan, the Director for the campaign for youth justice called the 2nd look Legislation. '2nd Look' means youth serving long sentences get their sentences reviewed at some point in their incarceration. Would you consider 2nd look Legislation?

I find it odd and grandly contradictory that our level of sophistication has reached such an advanced stage that we can create the technology that sends man to the moon, yet we haven't created a system that responsibly adjudicates our troubled children.
A system that seeks to rehabilitate and progressively mould their mids instead of using the most vulnerable sector of the population as political ponds. It's time we take heed to the cutting edge science and use it within the construction of a system that is dedicated to helping children reach their maximal development, use it to construct a legal foundation that outlaws the waiver of children into the Adult Judicial System and making it a requirement for Judges to consider age (of Juveniles) at sentencing.

The latest in Human Rights First's Keep America Afraid ( http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/our-w... ) series, this video spoofs some of the critics of federal court trials who claimed that if Guantanamo detainees were tried in federal court there would be chaos.

In fact, the only Gitmo detainee to be brought to our courts got life in prison—more than all other contested trials in military commissions combined. Sign our petition to close Guantanamo ( http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/our-w...

JAMIE SCOTT HOSPITALIZED - BROTHER IN AFGHANISTAN NEEDS TO COME HOME

(Pensacola), FL – 12/25/11 – Jamie Scott has been hospitalized with an excessively high potassium level. The sisters were released from prison to serve life on parole and have had a very rough time adjusting with little funds to support themselves. Their mother is on a fixed income and unable to make necessary repairs as a result of storm damage to the house. These repairs require immediate attention to accommodate Jamie upon her release from the hospital.

Currently, their brother serving in Afghanistan owns the home and is the only person who is able to conduct business regarding the house -- the insurance company will not comply with Mrs. Rasco. Willie James Scott Jr., is in need of your assistance to get home. Please contact all media outlets and make this information public.

Monday, 24 January 2011

Please help us restore california visiting for inmates and their family!!!

Our initiative seeks to restore family visits for lifers with the same exceptions that have always been in place for sex offenders, etc. As you know, family contact with spouses and children significantly increases the chances of successful rehabilitation, increases good behavior during confinement and results in better outcomes for children of inmates. Furthermore, one of our basic premises is that family members, especially children, have committed no crime, and deserve and have a right to physical contact with their parent.

We seek your guidance, advice, input and support because we believe that it is imperative to involve VICTIMS in this initiative. In fact, we seek to require a fee for family visits that would allow for funds to be placed in the Victim's Compensation Fund. We realize that there must be a balance between the rights of the incarcerated, as well as the victims. You may check out our website at http://www.restorec alifamilyvisits.com/.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shhbgvb3m1I

DETROIT (FinalCall.com) - Davontae Sanford is now 18. He has spent the last four years of his short life in adult prisons, convicted of murdering four people on Runyon Street on Detroit's east side on Sept. 15, 2007, when he was 14. He is 5'6, slightly-built, blind in one eye, and developmentally disabled.
Shortly after Davontae was sentenced to 37 to 90 years in prison in 2008, Vincent Smothers, now 28, of Shelby Township, confessed to the Detroit police on videotape that he and a different man committed the murders as part of a series of drug-related hits.
Highly placed members of the police department have testified they believe Davontae is innocent, including a former chief of homicide who says Davontae was with him at the time of the murders.

Davontae Sanford at 14.

“Davontae's a warm, loving person who the kids always said was my favorite,” said his mother Taminko Sanford. “He was born on Thanksgiving Day, and I always felt he was my gift from God.”
Davontae is her first son, the second oldest of five children, and she along with his stepfather and siblings have waged a relentless campaign since his arrest to free him, garnering broad-ranging support.
“Davontae was about to start the ninth grade at Osborn High School the day after his arrest,” Ms. Sanford said. “He loves rap and computers. He is so close to his brother and his three sisters. His brother has all Davontae's letters from prison pasted up all over his bedroom walls, and his little sister has all his childhood photos on hers.”
Davontae has 1,249 Facebook supporters from all over the world, including the United Kingdom and Sweden. He has support from media personalities like Bill Proctor of Detroit's Channel 7, who runs his own Innocence Project. His case has received extensive and generally sympathetic coverage from the Associated Press and Detroit's daily media.
Elish Delaporter of the UK is following his case on her MySpace website, part of her campaign against this country's exclusive practice of sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole. That policy is expressly condemned by the UN Commission on the Rights of the Child.
But in a seemingly never-ending series of evidentiary hearings since July, 2009, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is vigorously fighting Davontae's motion for a new trial, citing what his defense attorney Kim McGinnis calls a “classic false confession.”
During the most recent hearing Jan. 14, in front of Davontae's trial judge Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan, Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Puleo once again ignored another of Atty. McGinnis' requests that the prosecution grant “use” immunity to Mr. Smothers. That would allow him to testify in court about his role in the murders without fear of having the prosecution use his testimony to charge him in the cases.
Prosecutor Puleo said he is worried about Mr. Smothers' constitutional rights, because he could face life without parole if he admits to the killings.
Mr. Smothers is already serving 50-100 years in maximum security on nine counts of second-degree murder and three counts of assault with intent to commit murder, along with various felony charges, stemming from other cases in which he testified he was a hit man for a drug ring.

Davontae Sanford in court June 30, 2010.

Atty. McGinnis called the plea deal for such a number of hit killings “virtually unheard of,” and Mr. Proctor called it “the deal of the century” in news coverage of the sentencing on July 23 of this year.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Craig Strong, who sentenced Mr. Smothers, even pleaded with him, “You cannot bring back those who were killed but you can correct wrongs for those who were wrongfully convicted of killing people that you killed.”
Mr. Proctor reported that Judge Strong “seemed highly concerned about a pre-sentence report that indicated Smothers had confessed to murders that were not a part of the plea deal. It spelled out in part how Smothers had confessed to the murder of four people on Runyon Street on Detroit's east side and how 16-year-old Davontae Sanford was in prison for those killings.”
A YouTube videotape of portions of the sentencing, along with others related to the Mr. Smothers cases, can be viewed online.
Mr. Smothers is now contending that his confessions were coerced, and has appealed his convictions. Among his contentions is that the police threatened to charge his wife if he did not confess. He is represented by Attorney Mitchell Foster, also of the State Appellate Defenders' Office.
The prosecutor's office does not appear so concerned about Davontae's constitutional rights.
Atty. McGinnis said that during the child's questioning by police, neither his mother nor an attorney was present. Davontae signed and initialed a typewritten document drawn up by a detective, despite being blind in one eye, and according to Atty. McGinnis, reading at a third-grade level. There is no videotaped record of the confession except one in which the detective reads the confession back to him.
“It was a classic false confession,” Atty. McGinnis said. “Davontae saw the police lights after the killings were discovered around the corner from his house, and walked up to the police to find out what was going on. They told him, ‘You know what's going on,' and took him downtown. Twenty hours later, he signed a confession which contained only the details that the police already knew at the time.”
In his confession Davontae claimed he committed the killings with a different weapon than the one used in the killings, Atty. McGinnis said. Ballistics evidence, delayed due to the shutdown of the Detroit police crime lab two years ago, is still to be introduced in upcoming evidentiary hearings.
“Smothers gave a confession that was very detailed and clear and implicated another man, Edward Davis,” Atty. McGinnis said. “The things he says he did are what the police say Davontae did. The woman in the back room who survived said the killer talked to her in a soft voice that was sounded 30-35 years old, but later changed her testimony to say it was an adolescent voice. In his confession, Smothers admitted to going back to speak to her.”
She added, “The prosecutor has spent a lot of energy trying to tie Smothers to Davontae, but has never been able produce any such evidence. It is absurd to think that professional contract killers were going to allow a 14-year-old boy to tag along with them.”
Detroit's retired chief of homicide, Commander William Rice, who spent 25 years on the force, was dating Davontae's great-aunt Cheryl Sanford at the time of the Runyon Street killings. Mr. Rice testified Oct. 28, 2009 that he was with Davontae at her house at the time of the murders, from 8 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., and that he left to take another man home to Mt. Clemens and then take Davontae home.
But during the November hearing, the prosecution challenged Mr. Rice's testimony.
A Detroit police investigator, Arthur Wimmer, testified. He said he is assigned to the Violent Crimes Task Force composed of the DPD, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the MDOC, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, and other agencies at all levels.
Mr. Wimmer said he had 120 hours (three weeks) of specialized training in cell tower forensics conducted by the FBI and private corporations, and was allowed to testify as an expert witness. Michigan currently has no licensing process for such experts.
Mr. Wimmer claimed Mr. Rice's cell phone records showed he was in Mt. Clemens, a city about 30 miles east of Detroit, at 11:18 p.m. the night of the murders.
Atty. McGinnis challenged cell tower testimony as sometimes inaccurate. She said later that the testimony may have shown that Mr. Rice was off base in his exact estimates of time, but did not discount Davontae's presence with his family for most of the time prior to the killings.
“He would not have had time to prepare, or to hook up with Smothers and get to the site to commit the murders,” Atty. McGinnis said.
A Department of Corrections official also testified about alleged “gang” materials and graffiti found in a search of Davontae's cell in the Thumb Correctional Facility. The official claimed scars on Davontae's arms were remnants of gang tattoos.
“Anything that happened after the night of the murders is not relevant,” Atty. McGinnis objected. But Judge Sullivan allowed the testimony to go on record.
“The tattoos were about the movie ‘Bloodline,' ” Ms. Sanford said. “Both Davontae and his brother had them. They just stand for their connection to each other, nothing else. They were separated from each other for part of their lives.”
In addition to Rice, Detroit Police Department investigator Ira Todd, who helped take Mr. Smothers' confession, signed an affidavit stating he believes Davontae is innocent. Mr. Todd, who was also a member of the Violent Crimes Task Force, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Detroit's former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
His lawsuit, filed by attorney Michael Stefani, says, “During the continuing investigation, it was determined that Smothers was a killer for hire for a notorious Detroit drug gang that regularly contracted for the murders of members of rival drug gangs as well as dissident members of their own organizations.”
In the lawsuit, Mr. Todd claims he was removed from the task force, demoted and otherwise mistreated because his investigation into the Mr. Smothers' killings led him to Mr. Smothers' alleged accomplice, Ernest Davis, and to Davis' cousin James Davis of Kentucky. Mr. Todd said James Davis claimed to have a “business relationship” with Mayor Kilpatrick, and that when he reported that, his investigation was shut down and he was transferred.
Neither AP's Muscat nor prosecutor Puleo would comment outside of court on the case. Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller, who is chief communications officer for DA Worthy's office, said, “Because the case remains in progress we will not comment on issues directly related to it outside of court. It was appropriate for the APA handling the case to also not comment outside of court. The case is in open court and our assistant prosecutor is responding in court.”
Just prior to Mr. Smothers' sentencing, the jail was locked down after guards discovered that he had been allegedly able to obtain a cell phone while locked up.
Taminko Sanford says she believes that may indicate he had connections with law enforcement officials. One of the people Mr. Smothers confessed to killing was Rose Cobb, wife of Detroit police sergeant David Cobb. Mr. Smothers said Sgt. Cobb hired him to kill his wife outside a CVS pharmacy on E. Jefferson near their home, as she waited in the car while her husband was in the store.
Although the police department arrested Mr. Cobb, District Attorney Worthy never charged him in the murder. Mr. Cobb was later found hanging from a tree, an apparent suicide.
Spokesperson Miller did not respond to a question regarding whether Mr. Smothers may have been a hit man for corrupt police officers.
During the hearing Nov. 23, Davontae appeared polite and happy to see his mother and other family members, but there was an air of quiet desperation about him.
Ms. Sanford said Jan. 12 that she was very worried about Davontae because she had not heard from him for two weeks. He was recently transferred from Michigan's Thumb Correctional Facility, which houses a large number of younger prisoners, to the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia, with Level Four prisoners over the age of 17. In Michigan's prisons, Level Five is the maximum security grade.
“Davontae used to call me every day, sometimes more than once a day,” Ms. Sanford said. “I've been praying to God to let me hear from him so that I know he is OK. It's a new atmosphere for him and I'm so worried because I'm afraid that he is losing hope. He can get very depressed.”
Davontae's next court hearing is tentatively set for January 28 at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.The Free Davontae Sanford page can be found on Facebook.com.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. It was proposed on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868.
The amendment provides a broad definition of national citizenship, overturning a central holding of the Dred Scott case. It requires the states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons (not only to citizens) within their jurisdictions.
Current Supreme Court Justice David Souter has called this amendment "the most significant structural provision adopted since the original Framing". (McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005)), although the true significance of the Amendment was not realized until the 1950s and 1960s, when it was interpreted to prohibit racial segregation in public schools and other facilities in Brown v. Board of Education.

The 14th amendment states that states must provide equal protection to all people. It also defines what citizenship is.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Saturday, 22 January 2011

. There is a need for the death penalty for pimps and traffickers and jail time for men who keep this slave trade alive by soliciting prostitution. They destroy lives like African slave traders in the 18th century.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA01zemSwZs

What happens to America's runaway youth? What happens to girls and young women who go with an acquaintance that has befriended them? This video shows that missing girls from America's heartland appear in Las Vegas, cities and truck stops across the nation enslaved for prostitution. The second largest group of trafficked youth are those traded by friends and family members. There is a need for the death penalty for pimps and traffickers and jail time for men who keep this slave trade alive by soliciting prostitution. They destroy lives like African slave traders in the 18th century.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bVnPhjUAls

How do you define "Black Unity"? What level of cooperation among people who considered themselves Black can be considered "Black Unity". With many Black people practicing different religions, spiritual principles and subscribed to different political philosophies, is Black Unity even possible?

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

The film explores Cyntoia's life. The camera first glimpses her the week of her arrest at age 16 and follows her for nearly six years. Along the way, nationally renown juvenile forensic psychiatrist, Dr. William Bernet from Vanderbilt University, assesses her situation. We meet Ellenette Brown, Cyntoia's adoptive mother who talks about the young girl's early years. Georgina Mitchell, Cyntoia's biological mother, meets her for the first time since she gave her up for adoption 14 years earlier. When we meet Cyntoia's maternal grandmother, Joan Warren, some patterns begin to come into sharp focus.

Cyntoia wrestles with her fate. She is stunningly articulate, and spends the time to put the pieces of this puzzle together with us. Cyntoia's pre-prison lifestyle was nearly indistiguishable from her mother's at the same age. History - predestined by biology and circumstance - is repeating down the generations in this family.

Cyntoia is tried as an adult, and the cameras are there when she is convicted and sentenced to life at the Tennessee Prison for Women. After the verdict, Cyntoia calls her mom to tell her the news.

In the end, we catch up with Cyntoia as she is adjusting to prison, and struggling with her identity and hope for her future.

Monday, 17 January 2011

"And who is responsible for this appalling child slavery? Everyone." - Mary H. Jones Soldiers As Slaves By Jeff Turner (@respres) It started as disgust. But as time passed and evidence mounted, the pain has worked it's way deeper into my soul. There is no way to fully describe the anguish that comes form watching, listening, or reading reports of the atrocities committed against our world's innocents. Young children are the targets of unthinkable cruelty. They're easier to manipulate, brainwash and abuse. And while the attacks are bad enough, the lingering effects of their abuse are overwhelming. These children will never be the same again. They are forever scarred. Our world is forever scarred.... Tags: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtqvAwh9btQ

An excerpt from President John F. Kennedy's June 11, 1963 radio and television address to the American people on civil rights. Copyright: John F. Kennedy Library Foundationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWX_pjyIq-g

The Juvenile Justice in the United States is certainly in dire need of America's undivided focus and attention, for far too many children are being led into the adult court system and discarded into the adult prison system unnecessarily. So I commend and applaud your efforts to bring a degree of responsibility to the juvenile justice Laws in the State of Wisconsin. Though I think it's important that America's focus and attention also include the teenagers that were waived and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment in the adult prison system 15/16/17/years ago. I think Justice for these Juvenile offenders would include Liz Ryan, the Director for the campaign for youth justice called the 2nd look Legislation. '2nd Look' means youth serving long sentences get their sentences reviewed at some point in their incarceration. Would you consider 2nd look Legislation? Dante D. Cottingham #259241 Green bay Correctional Institute P.O. Box 19033 Green bay Wisconsin 54307-9033

Michelle Alexander, Author, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, speaks on a panel at the Black Community Crusade for Children gathering at CDF Haley Farm on December 15, 2010.

Jan. 15, 4:33 p.m. – I have a short report on today’s rally
at the Ohio State Penitentiary in support of the three men on hunger
strike. But first, I can now report to you the wonderful news that all
three have resumed eating because they achieved a victory. The prison
authorities have provided, in writing, a set of conditions that
virtually meets the demands set out by Bomani Shakur in his letter to
Warden Bobby, provided below.

Ohio State Penitentiary

The hunger strikers send you all thanks for your support and state
that they couldn’t have won their demands without support from people
from around the world. But they add to their statement the following:
This time they were fighting about their conditions of confinement, but
now they begin the fight for their lives.

They were wrongfully convicted of complicity in 1993 murders in
Lucasville prison and have faced retribution because they refused to
provide snitch testimony against others who actually committed those
murders. Now, because of Ohio’s – and other states’ – application of the
death penalty, they still face execution at a future date. Ohio is
today exceeded only by Texas in its enthusiasm for applying the death
penalty. We need to take some of this energy that was created around the
hunger strike to help these men fight for their lives.

So, we may celebrate a great victory for now. Common sense has
prevailed in a dark place where there appeared to be no light. But watchthis space for further news on their ongoing campaign.

I hope to share a copy of the Ohio prison authorities’ written statement that ended this hunger strike in a short time.

As Bomani has told me many times, “It ain’t over …”

Jan. 15, 4:40 p.m. – The rally at OSP was attended by a
large crowd, including many members of the families of the hunger
strikers, despite the freezing weather. Family members met with the
hunger strikers this morning and they reported that they were in high
spirits on ending their hunger strike and winning their demands, but
that they now had to turn their attention to their death sentences.

Statements of support came from all over the world and a small
delegation of relatives, along with Alice Lynd, went to the prison and
left a copy of our open letter for Warden David Bobby,
signed by more than 1,200 people including prominent people from Ohio
and around the world. Warden Bobby was not there, but a designated
representative received the letter on his behalf with a promise that he
would read it.

The crowd then proceeded to a church hall in downtown Youngstown for
refreshments and some celebration over the good news. The organizers,
especially Sharon Danann and Alice and Staughton Lynd, want to thank
everyone who supported these men for their contribution to this victory.

Our thoughts are with Bomani, Hasan, Jason and Namir, and we will remain at their sides.

Letter from Keith LaMar (Bomani Shakur) to Warden Bobby of Ohio State Penitentiary

by Keith LaMar

Bomani Shakur

Jan. 3 – I’m writing to inform you that I am henceforth
on a hunger strike. After 12 years of what can only be described as a
double penalty, I am respectfully requesting that you cease this
tortuous predicament that I am in. As a death-sentenced prisoner, I
should be allowed the very same privileges as other similarly sentenced
prisoners, and this is all I am asking, nothing more or less. Therefore,
in spite of what your personal feelings are, I hereby appeal to your
sense of professionalism and ask that you seriously consider the
following demands:

Full recreation privileges.

Full commissary privileges.

Full access to Access SecurePac catalog.

Semi-contact visits.

Access to computer database so that I can assist in the furtherance of my appeals.

These things are presently being offered to all death-sentenced
prisoners and, again, I hereby respectfully request that I be granted
the same. As you know, my appeals are fast approaching resolution,
moving me closer and closer to a day of reckoning. Please allow me the
opportunity to pursue whatever my end will be with the same level of
dignity and respect that other similarly situated prisoners enjoy. You
have this within your power to permit, and I ask that instead of abusing
your power that you use it justly, and soon.

Welcome To My World

About Me

DARCY D= YOU MUST BELIEVE.STANDING UP FOR THE INNOCENT C.E.O
The United Kingdom resident champions causes of the voiceless, the powerless and the weak, particularly in North America. She campaigns for petitions on behalf of incarcerated human trafficking.